Nicole Dial-Kay

Nicole Dial-Kay is a curator and writer whose practice centers on place-based contemporary art, ambitious collaborative projects, and community-engaged exhibitions. Through long-term partnerships with artists, cultural organizations, and local communities, she develops exhibitions, publications, and public programs rooted in local histories, vernacular knowledge, and cultural landscapes.She is Curator of Exhibitions and Collections at the Harwood Museum of Art in Taos, New Mexico, where she oversees the museum's exhibition program and permanent collection. Her recent projects include Unearthing Futures / Desenterrando Futuros (2026), a major multi-site exhibition and cultural landscape initiative exploring adobe as both material and methodology. Developed in collaboration with artists, guest curators, and more than fifty historic adobe sites across New Mexico and Colorado, the project expands the exhibition beyond the museum through a network of cultural sites, public programs, and a forthcoming publication.Projects she has organized have been featured in Artforum, The New York Times, Vogue, Vanity Fair, The Art Newspaper, Hyperallergic, Artnet News, and other national and international publications.Prior to joining the Harwood Museum, Dial-Kay served as Senior Director of Arts and Programming at Breckenridge Creative Arts, where she led year-round exhibitions, artist residencies, public art initiatives, and interdisciplinary cultural programming. Earlier positions include the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, the University of Colorado Art Museum, the Pratt Museum in Homer, Alaska, and the Saint Louis Art Museum.Her writing has appeared in exhibition catalogues and museum publications, including 100 Years for 100 Works: Harwood Centennial, Charles Ross: Mansions of the Zodiac, Maja Ruznic: Sliver of the Sun, and Unearthing Futures / Desenterrando Futuros. She has lectured and participated in public conversations on contemporary art, curatorial practice, and place-based exhibition making.Dial-Kay holds an M.A. in Art History from the University of Colorado Boulder, an M.A. in History with a concentration in Museum Studies from the University of Missouri–St. Louis, and a B.A. in Art History from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.e: nicole.dial.kay [at] gmail [dot] com,